This week’s Music Monday features TONS of new releases! TOKiMONSTA, Cam & China, Jean Grae, serpentwithfeet, drugdealer, Goat, of Montreal and Warpaint all have new music. The playlist also features a host of other talent that you’ll just have to check out. Music Monday spans a multitude of genres but keeps the groove going over eighteen tracks.

Jean Grae rose to prominence in the Brooklyn, New York, underground hip-hop scene. Born in South Africa to jazz musician parents, she moved to New York after she was born, where her parents promptly placed her in a school for the arts. From there, she continued her upward ascent to study Music Business at New York University. Equipped with natural talent, years of experience, and a mind for business, Jean Grae has been a feminist force in the music industry since her career began in 1996.

She’s currently independent after leaving Talib Kweli’s record label. Atmosphere, The Roots, Talib Kweli, The Herbaliser, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Immortal Technique are among the many, many artists that have called upon Grae to collaborate.

Recently, Grae worked with Ta-Nehisi Coates for the revival of Marvel’s Black comic hero franchise Black Panther. “What You Came For” was produced by Quelle Chris and follows Prodigy’s (yes … those guys) “Beast With It,” featured in the second trailer for the comic. Prodigy may not hold up beyond childhood nostalgia, but Grae is pretty much everything.

Goat’s music creates a web of “Where The Wild Things Are”-like psychedelia. Hailing from Sweden, the female-led psych group creates a polyrhythmic web of sound. Signed to alternative behemoth Sub Pop, Goat has finally released a full-length, 13-track album. Famed for their wild live shows, the band’s sound is like a seance inviting Amon Duul II, Fela Kuti, CAN, and Sun Ra to the table, but with the undeniably Scandanavian ability to create songs that leave you singing them for days on end.

Georgia Anne Muldrow is a vastly under-rated, important voice in the music industry. Based in Los Angeles, the multi-talented artist sings and raps about a rich cultural heritage that gives her strength in an unkind world.

Mos Def says of Muldrow: “She’s incredible. She’s like Flack, Nina Simone, Ella, she’s something else. She’s like religion. It’s heavy, vibrational music. I’ve never heard a human being sing like this. Her voice is wildly, finely expressive. It’s so singular. It’s hip-hop, the way that she approaches it rhythmically, she’s got so many jazz influences. It’s something else and you can just feel it. With ‘Georgia Anne Muldrow Presents Ms. One’ (Someothaship) she’s like J. Dilla, the legendary producer. She makes her own beats, she rhymes, she sings and she plays. If people love Amy Winehouse, they’re going to get their minds blown when they hear Georgia Anne Muldrow.”

Of Montreal has come out with one of the poppiest, funnest, surprisingly feminist tracks, “Different For Girls” … confusingly written by a (surprisingly) heterosexual, cis white man. The father of a little girl, Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes talks about the challenges that his wife and daughter face regularly.

While the track is not devoid of problematic issues, like the use of the phrase “psycho bitch,” it also acknowledges that for every problematic woman, there are many more problematic men. “Kevin is one of the bravest musicians of my generation,” says Solange Knowles, a massive fan of the band. “I grew up watching Tina Turner, James Brown, Michael Jackson, people who were performers, not just singers. For some reason the performance style that’s cool right now is not trying too hard. But to me, if you’re going to do anything, why not try hard? It takes vulnerability and bravery, but Kevin has no fear.”

The gender-bending video celebrates all walks of life in this poppy earworm from Polyvinyl Records.

Check out our Music Monday playlist for an equally eclectic mix of music and come back every week for new tunes!

Laurel Dickman is an intersectional feminist, plus size model, stylist, and fat activist that can also be found via her blogs, Exile In Dietville and 2 Broke Bitches. She grew up in the south between Florida and North Carolina, migrating to the Portland, OR in 2005. All three places inform her perspective of the world around her a great deal. While in Portland, she worked with the Alley 33 Annual Fashion Show, PudgePDX, PDX Fatshion, Plumplandia, and numerous other projects over the near decade that she was there. In August of 2014, she moved to the Bay area with her partner, David and trusty kitty, Dorian Gray. She continues her body positive and intersectional feminism through various forms of activism, fashion, photography projects, and writing from her home in the East Bay. She can be reached at laurel@wyvmag.com and encourages readers to reach out to her to collaborate!